Vodafone to Spark Mobile - Advice/experiences

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Vodafone to Spark Mobile - Advice/experiences

networkn

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#240064 18-Aug-2018 16:54

After 22+ years with Vodafone (Since Bell South) I am seriously considering dropping them for my business to head to Spark. Vodafone won't let me pre-order the Note 9 through them and I am tired of the difficult time I have getting simple things like this just handled. Digital Mobile are a train wreck.

I'd like to know how coverage is anecdotally from others that have switched, how you find support/accounts.

Roaming looks much worse, no $5 a day option. Best I can find is $20 for 7 days, but you only get 500MB during that time and that wouldn't cover me, esp when I am roaming.

I get Spotify and Lightbox with Spark.

I am in Auckland.

quickymart

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#2075472 18-Aug-2018 17:54

Mobile (not landline/broadband), right?

networkn

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#2075474 18-Aug-2018 17:56

quickymart:

Mobile (not landline/broadband), right?

Sorry, Yes. I'll adjust the topic.

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#2075475 18-Aug-2018 18:03

I'm auckland based for the most part, travel weekly to hamilton and all inbetween, It's rare VF has signal where spark doesn't in my experience.

i still run my vodafone sim as voice (dependency due to home location), but i've completely migrated over to spark for data.

I find it to simply be more consistent and faster. Price comes in slightly more but that's negligible for me..

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

MichaelNZ

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#2075495 18-Aug-2018 19:44

If rural LTE/4G is important to you Vodafone is the best. Otherwise coin toss between them and Spark.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

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#2075508 18-Aug-2018 21:21

MichaelNZ:
If rural LTE/4G is important to you Vodafone is the best. Otherwise coin toss between them and Spark.

im rural. vodafone is poor.

spark has excellent coverage.

MichaelNZ

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#2075510 18-Aug-2018 21:23

nakedmolerat:
MichaelNZ:

If rural LTE/4G is important to you Vodafone is the best. Otherwise coin toss between them and Spark.

im rural. vodafone is poor.

spark has excellent coverage.

I'm talking on average. Where I live VF is the best option. If there is rural areas which are important to the OP they should compare.

WFH Linux Systems and Networks Engineer in the Internet industry | Specialising in Mikrotik | APNIC member | Open to job offers | ZL2NET

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#2075593 19-Aug-2018 06:10

nakedmolerat:
MichaelNZ:

If rural LTE/4G is important to you Vodafone is the best. Otherwise coin toss between them and Spark.

im rural. vodafone is poor.

spark has excellent coverage.

We've tested both Vodafone and Spark in the lower North Island and found Spark better coverage wise (rural driving and around the hutt valley).

Only place where its the other way around is the Desert Road.

quickymart

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#2075596 19-Aug-2018 07:34

I get fairly average-to-poor Spark coverage at my place (on the Shore) but Vodafone has a full signal. Guess it helps that their nearest cellsite is 200m away :D

ResponseMediaNZ

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#2075609 19-Aug-2018 10:02

How much roaming do you do?

This was the real kicker for us at work staying with VF. If you roam a lot and need to be connected to the office then stay with VF just because of the $5 per day and using your plan back in NZ.

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#2075673 19-Aug-2018 11:36

DjShadow:

nakedmolerat:
MichaelNZ:

If rural LTE/4G is important to you Vodafone is the best. Otherwise coin toss between them and Spark.

im rural. vodafone is poor.

spark has excellent coverage.

We've tested both Vodafone and Spark in the lower North Island and found Spark better coverage wise (rural driving and around the hutt valley).

Only place where its the other way around is the Desert Road.

Realistically it's impossible to say one has better coverage than the other, and the old "Spark has better rural coverage" saying has never really been true.

Both networks have areas where they have better coverage than each other - head North of Gisborne and Vodafone runs rings around Spark when it comes to coverage around the East Cape. Vodafone also have coverage in a number of rural areas (Tuai out of Gisborne is one example) where Spark have nothing due to their long standing contract with Transpower, and ECNZ before that. For every area like this there is an area where Spark have coverage that Vodafone don't.

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#2076219 20-Aug-2018 13:43

I find that Spark run rings around voda’s coverage in general. Only place voda excels is the east cape and some parts of Northland - especially the Hokianga. Spark’s 700mhz footprint seems to be ever so slightly better too - each to their own

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networkn

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#2076346 20-Aug-2018 15:54

ResponseMediaNZ:

How much roaming do you do?

This was the real kicker for us at work staying with VF. If you roam a lot and need to be connected to the office then stay with VF just because of the $5 per day and using your plan back in NZ.

Yeah, this is proving to be a sticking point for me too. The 500MB for 7 days, means I would need to spend around $80 a trip to stay connected. 500GB of data is just crazy these days. If it were 2GB I would survive.

Problem is, they provide enough phone calls, so I could keep my phone and number, but not enough data so I need a travel sim and would lose my number. It's frustrating. The deal they are offering is otherwise very competitive.

wratterus

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#2076349 20-Aug-2018 16:02

Around the top of the south Spark seems to have superior signal pretty much everywhere.

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#2076355 20-Aug-2018 16:25

networkn:

ResponseMediaNZ:

How much roaming do you do?

This was the real kicker for us at work staying with VF. If you roam a lot and need to be connected to the office then stay with VF just because of the $5 per day and using your plan back in NZ.

Yeah, this is proving to be a sticking point for me too. The 500MB for 7 days, means I would need to spend around $80 a trip to stay connected. 500GB of data is just crazy these days. If it were 2GB I would survive.

Problem is, they provide enough phone calls, so I could keep my phone and number, but not enough data so I need a travel sim and would lose my number. It's frustrating. The deal they are offering is otherwise very competitive.

Think you got your MB and GB mixed up " 500GB of data is just crazy "

John

networkn

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#2076363 20-Aug-2018 16:27

Linux:

Think you got your MB and GB mixed up " 500GB of data is just crazy these "

John

Haha in my world, there aren't many MB's any more, it's all GB's :)

But yes you are correct.